Two City Blues 2

Two City Blues 2 by Peter Brötzmann, Keiji Haino, and Jim O’Rourke.

The interesting thing about improv, is, well, sometimes something interesting just doesn’t happen. Which can be interesting, in it’s own uncomfortable way. But… The first, long, track on the second disc of Two City Blues starts with Brötzmann noodling out tones on Tenor, O’Rourke doing his best impression of country slide blues guitar, Haino on Shamisen and his patented shout-sing voice. O’Rourke moves through several guitar strategies, but for the first 15 minutes of this track, the musicians just don’t sound engaged with the music or each other. Fortunately, at around 17 minutes, the energy flow changes, somehow, and they turn it around for a blistering final 35 minutes.